YouTube: Flash provides best platform for our videos

Streaming giant has its say as video format battle continues to rage

Shares

Official blog post talks up merits of Flash and HTML5.

YouTube has given its tuppence worth on the never-ending debate about whether HTML5 or Adobe Flash can win the battle for web video supremacy. And its official blog post says that while the former has its merits, Flash still has a long way to go.

YouTube Software Engineer John Harding writes, “While HTML5’s video support enables us to bring most of the content and features of YouTube to computers and other devices that don’t support Flash Player, it does not yet meet all of our needs.”

Harding continues, “Today, Adobe Flash provides the best platform for YouTube’s video distribution requirements, which is why our primary video player is built with it.”

Harding also points out that HTML5’s struggles with full screen videos have caused issues and that Flash is still the best medium for spying HD content on the world’s favourite video sharing platform. He also talks up Google’s plans for its WebM codec, which has previously been talked down by Steve Jobs, whose love for HTML5 is well documented.